The Minister of the Environment, Cristina Narbona, presided this morning at the Madrid IV Penitentiary Center (Navalcarnero) over the signing of the agreement that contemplates the extension of the “Oxygen Project” to new prisons in our country. This agreement has been signed by the director of the Biodiversity Foundation, María Artola, the secretary general for Territory and Biodiversity and president of the Autonomous National Parks Agency, Antonio Serrano, and the general director of Penitentiary Institutions and president of the Autonomous Prison Work and Training for Employment Agency, Mercedes Gallizo.

Likewise, the Minister of the Environment has delivered the diplomas to the 18 students of the Madrid IV Penitentiary Center (Navalcarnero) who have completed the pilot course that has been launched within the framework of the “Oxygen Project”. This initiative seeks to rescue the values of nature for the benefit of the person, with a view to his or her reintegration into society. Its main objective is the training of prison inmates through courses related to the environment that have been designed to facilitate their subsequent incorporation into the labour market.

The “Oxygen Project” is promoted by the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of the Interior, the former through the Biodiversity Foundation and the Autonomous National Parks Agency, and the latter, through the Autonomous Prison Work and Training for Employment Agency and the Navalcarnero Penitentiary Centre. In addition, it has the participation of three social organizations with extensive experience in this area, “Open Horizons”, “Solidarity for Development” and the “Tomillo Foundation”.

The first initiative that has been launched within the framework of this project has been developed from last October to this September at the Madrid IV Penitentiary Center (Navalcarnero). The success of the course, which has been taken by eighteen students from this prison, has led the institutions promoting this initiative to expand the “Oxygen Project” to new centers in our country. The “Oxygen Project” will be launched in the Penitentiary Centers of Madrid IV (Navalcarnero), Madrid I (Alcalá de Henares), Segovia, Algeciras, Madrid VI (Aranjuez) and Palma de Mallorca. Thus, between 15 and 30 interns will participate during the 2007-2008 academic year in the two modules of which the cycle consists: Gardening and Forestry Worker. At the end of each of the modules, students will receive the corresponding degree.

The courses provided for in the “Oxygen Project” include theoretical classes, practical workshops, as well as work in a greenhouse, provided by the Penitentiary Center, which will allow inmates participating in this program to put into practice the knowledge acquired. In addition, students will be able to carry out internships in facilities belonging to the National Parks Autonomous Body, such as farms and nurseries of the State. This project also entails the creation of a Biodiversity Classroom, open to all inmates who wish to do so, where lectures will be held periodically by invited experts, which will provide attendees with environmental awareness.